AP Human Geo Writing Assignment CH 1

In Nick Kirkpatrick’s article, he tells the heartbreaking story of 15-year-old Nasoin

Akhter’s marriage to a 32-year-old man, Mohammad Hasamur Rahman. In certain countries like

Bangladesh, where Akhter and Rahman’s wedding was held, child marriage is a popular practice,

and the law rarely ever enforces the illegality of it. More often than not, the daughters are being

used and seen as objects to solve a family’s financial problems. As Fawzia Koofi, an Afghan

politician and women’s rights activist, once said, “I don’t call it marriage; I call it selling

children.” For example, perhaps a family has little money to spend on furthering their daughter’s

education and cannot afford to continue raising her when she is already old enough to leave her

father’s house for a husband’s house. Thus, then the only choice they have is to marry their

daughter off to a man, regardless of his age, with better social standing in hopes of providing

their daughter with a better life.

I find it interesting how the idea of females being objectified can be applied to various

cultures and societies around the world. For instance, as I mentioned before, girls in countries

like Bangladesh are objectified through child marriage. Girls like Akhter are often

disempowered, dependent on their husbands, and limited from exploring the world and its

possibilities. In countries such as the United States, on the other hand, girls are objectified in a

more sexualized style. Many companies create advertisements that project female bodies in a

certain way so that they resemble the products the companies are trying to sell. These companies

are basically using women as tools to increase the number of their products sold and the amount

of money they earn. In both cases, gender inequality is reinforced. The undisputable truth is we

live in a highly male-dominated world, and it’s inevitable that no matter where in the world,

there will be females who are objectified and devalued.

 Though many countries today are improving in the sense that women’s rights are being

acknowledged more and more, they still struggle with the problem of enforcing the law when it

comes to issues that deal with women objectification and sexualization. In the cases of child

marriage, several governments have proposed multiple plans, such as lowering the legal marriage

age and facilitating the marriages, to deal with the problem, but most result in public outrage. In

my opinion, I think that people would do more if they were able to see more. If the conditions

the girls have to suffer were put out for the whole world to see, generations of girls could be

saved from being forced into child marriages. Progress is possible; if more people around the

world were educated on these concerning matters, a global pressure could be instilled, which

could result in a movement for major change actually happening.